Halfway!

Day 81

Top of climb to meadow one mile before HWY 36

30 miles plus .6 to water

Camped at mile 1330.3

When we set out this morning, our plan was to hike about 20 miles, then go into town tomorrow and stay the night. So once we got service, I called a hotel to book a place to stay in Chester. Unfortunately, it was all booked up so we had to rethink our plan. We need food, showers, and eventually laundry. So we instead decided to do 30 miles today and hitch into and out of Chester in one day tomorrow and hike the 14 miles to the border of Lassen National Park. Lassen has a bear can requirement to camp in its borders which kind of throws off normal mileage days around it. But it is good they protect the bears there. Chester has a laundromat and showers in the middle of town so perhaps we will do those errands after getting groceries tomorrow.

It was interesting to see the fire damage as we walked through a large section of the forest today. Many plants have begun coming back such as the manzanita bushes, some wildflowers, and mushrooms on the trees. Around the water sources is where these flowers come back to life the fastest. Many of the rocks seem brittle and break easily as if they have been chard. The dirt is a mix of very fine sand and ash so it gets all over everything and I feel very dirty til the end of the day when I try to wash off at the last water source of the day. I’m grateful this section has already opened back up to hikers and for the hard work of trail crews that have already cut through a lot of the downed trees.

Today also marked the halfway point of the trail! There is a concrete marker to commemorate this and it felt surreal to arrive there. Perhaps because we have been counting down the miles to this point and maybe also because Northern California still feels about 1,000 miles long. We are halfway and still in California with a couple hundred miles to the Oregon border I believe. Our hiking group had been to the monument earlier in the day since they are ahead of us and we were sad not to be at this big achievement with them. But Kevin and I celebrated arriving here just the same.

When we arrived to camp, we were super proud of ourselves for making it through our first 30 mile day on the PCT! My feet are a bit sore but I still feel strong and hopefully can hobble out of the tent in the morning still!

1300 miles

Day 80

Belden tree house to top of the climb, 1300.6ish

13.3 miles plus 1.6 off trail road walk

5,000ish feet of gain

A group of about eight of us slept in the “treehouse” structure last night. I heard their alarms go off early to get a good start up the hill before the heat. I wished we could leave with them but alas we had to go and get our boxes. Yesterday after the post office people told us we couldn’t get our box, they opened for another hiker and she got her packages and could start the climb earlier in the day. That felt frustrating that the business did that but what can ya do?

After a breakfast of oatmeal and sweet tea, we walked down the road 1.6 miles to Caribou Crossings. It was a tiny campground and even smaller store. There wasn’t really enough food in the store to even resupply with so I was glad we had boxes. After getting our boxes and packing our bags, the store owner offered to drive us back to the trail. This was super kind of them. On the drive, the campground owner told us about how the valley of Belden was settled because of its gold. The “treehouse” we had slept in was a renovated stamp mill. They would bring rocks, usually quartz, to the mill to be smashed so they could get the gold out. People still pan the river for gold.

We began the climb up the hill at 10:30. Right about when it was starting to get so hot. The whole climb was about 13 miles and 5,000 feet of gain. So long and uphill the whole way. It was also very exposed for most of the climb because of the fire damage. Thankfully, there were a lot of streams to dunk our hats and shirts in and try to stay hydrated. I was pouring sweat the whole afternoon as we were in the sun and it felt a bit humid too. There was a surviving tree about three miles up that we could sit under for a siesta. We stayed there from about 12:15 to 3:30 then continued on. I was super grateful for more forest farther up the hill too. I also started listening to a new book. “Beartown” by Fredrick Backman. This town is set in Scandinavia and they talk about winter a lot so I think that helped me stay cool too! Thinking about snow, ice, and hockey! Camp arrived at 9pm. We had to push to a certain spot to camp that didn’t have a bunch of dead trees and the sunset there was amazing!

Beldentown

Day 79

16.7 miles into Belden

Camped in Belden at the “tree house”

When I woke up this morning, there was a deer romping around our tent. It was timidly walking around, sniffing the ground, then looking up at us if we moved at all. It was neat that we almost seemed to be a part of the deers day and it was unbothered by us…until we decided to get up.

Today the air smelled different. It wasn’t smoke or the trees but almost a humid smell. Today seemed like the first day there have been clouds in the sky except for when it rained or the smoke. There were a couple of days in the desert that weren’t full sun but it has been awhile so the clouds were a huge relief.

The first few miles this morning were uphill and in some unscathed forest. The rest of the miles were through a burnt forest from the Dixie fire which I believe is the largest or most destructive fire in California history. We will be hiking through the fire damage for the next few days. It is dusty and ashy so we have been getting filthy.

The end goal of today was getting to Belden and hopefully getting our resupply boxes. When we arrived, the shop was not open and not willing to open their post office to give us our boxes even though they said yesterday they would. So we will be staying near Belden tonight and getting our stuff tomorrow then heading out.

Belden is an interesting establishment. It calls itself a resort probably because they rent out rooms and cabins and it probably had a hay day about 50 years ago. The people who live in that area have been resilient through fires, a flood scare from a dam, and the trials of living in a not easily accessible town. Which is probably precisely why many of them live there.

We haven’t been seeing as many hikers along the trail in the last few days because quite a few people have skipped this section because of the burned area. It hasn’t been as bad as the general hype made it sound. Our goal is to walk every mile we can but we understand if someone was concerned about the ash or chemicals used in firefighting and their health.

Day 78

20.6 miles

Camped at mile 1270.3

Went to general store in Buck Lake

This morning consisted of a long well graded climb for a few miles as we climbed out of the Feather river ravine. It grew hot and almost humid pretty quickly. I was super grateful for the trees along most of the climb. Today’s forest was mostly unburned. Yesterday we walked through the Bear Creek fire area until we got to the river. But it might have been the Dixie fire. From now until Old Station, we have to choose our campsites well based on what areas are burned or unburned.

Today we added the adventure of walking into town to visit the little general store for snacks, cold drinks, and ice cream! The town was called Buck Lake and it has several campgrounds and quite a few vacation rentals. There are two restaurants, one of which was closed today the other one was only open for drinks. The bartender was very kind and patient as he was the only one working. One of the locals bought all eight of us drinks. Along the way into camp yesterday and then into town today, our group had picked up other hikers who had been hiking on their own. One of our friends in another hiking group that is usually behind us, calls our group the “get alongs”. Meaning we get along with and welcome everyone we see into the campsite, hiking groups, or dinner time we are having. I really appreciate this part of our group. But sometimes it means there are a lot of us so I was impressed we got our drinks bought for us with such a big group!

The bartender was telling us how last year at this time, their entire town was evacuated for six weeks because of the fires. It is wild the vast impacts fire season is having now.

On the way back from town, we got a hitch and piled six people plus packs into the back of a truck. What an adventure!

Sierra Buttes

Day 76

25.1 miles

Camped at mile 1224

We finished a large climb this morning it of the trees and around the large Buttes!

The mountains changed today. They went from the large rock Sierra Buttes that we have been able to see for miles. Then shifted into green rolling hills. The mountains are now around 6 or 7000 feet tall and have large forests of conifers blanketing the slopes. I love the huge trees. My plant ID app says they are red firs but I’ll have to double check that. Either way, the tall tall trees with the bright green wolf lichen growing on the bark with white and purple floral blanketed ground.

At one point today I looked down the mountain to see a huge lake with a ton of cars and boats. It looked fun. Then I realized it is the weekend so most people are outside recreating too! Just in a different way than us!

Currently as I try to go to sleep, there is a large animal or two roaming around the tent site in the thicket just beyond my sight. Perhaps a deer or a bear. It is inhibiting my sleep as I keep listening in the direction of my tied up food bag. There have been a lot of deer in this forest and so I’m sure it is a deer.

Sierra City

Day 75

15.1 miles

Resupply in Sierra City

Camped at mile 1198.7

The first seven miles of the walk went by pretty quickly. Kevin and I talked about what we needed to do in town and the food we hoped the tiny store would have. (Spoiler: the selection was very limited, we are in the middle of freaking nowhere, the owners have to travel a few hours to restock their store.)

The next five miles before the road to town went by more slowly. It was starting to get pretty hot. We are in lower elevation now than we have been in quite a while so it gets hotter during the day. When we were almost to the road we passed a couple who were on a day hike. We stopped to talk to them, they were on a hike to find an old mine in this area. We told them we were headed to town and they said “oh, we are going to take you to town”. They were excited we had a friend right behind us on the trail so they could give her a ride too.

It was very kind of them!

Sierra City was an easy place to pick up our box, get a sandwich at the deli, get a few snacks at the general store, and shower at the free showers in the park. The shower was colder than some alpine lakes so it was more of a splash bath but felt so refreshing on a hot day!

When we were getting ready to leave, some friends came into town that had been near us hiking but we hadn’t seen in a few days. It was fun to catch up and exchange phone numbers to stay connected down the trail.

The climb out of Sierra City is a long steady climb. We only went up three miles of it today and will finish it in the morning before it gets too hot again. Perhaps tomorrow I will do better at not complaining about the heat so much. Sorry Kevin.

28 miles

Day 74

27.9 miles

Today was our longest day of hiking yet on this trail, basically 28 miles. We picked up a few resupply snacks at the Donner ski ranch so we could skip Truckee today and get into Sierra City tomorrow. We have a package at the post office and since it is a tiny town, the hours are from 10am to 2pm. So we are going more miles today to get into town in time tomorrow to get our package. We tried to start out the day early and we kind of did, except we went to the rest area on I80 that the trail literally walked right past. When the trail crosses interstates, we usually do so by the drainage tunnels under the highway. Much safer and less illegal than crossing the actual road but I always think the tunnels are super creepy. This one usually has shin deep water running through it from draining the highway but today it was mostly dry. I was so glad. It was nice to go to the rest area to use the bathroom, get water, and have service for a bit. I got to FaceTime mom and Allison which I was grateful for. Then we got walking.

Sometimes Kevin and I have in-depth conversations about life and topics important to us. Today our important topic was what candies we would want to have in a candy trail mix.

They are as follows:

Ashley: nerd clusters, tropical mentos, mini starbursts, Swedish fish tails (different flavor than the red ones), Black Forest gummy bears,

Kevin: tropical Swedish fish, nerd clusters, mini starbursts, and sugar fruit slices,

Now we just have to find a dollar store to make our trail mixes!

After we hashed this out, we went back to listening to our books. Kevin is going through the Harry Potter series. This is sentimental to him because his mom read the books to him when he was small. It is one of his core memories he mentions often. And I am listening to The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog, about neuroscience, kids, and trauma. But I space it out with podcasts since that is a heavy topic.

We got into camp a bit late today since we went more miles and so we ate dinner a few miles before camp.

Donner Pass

Day 73

17.3 miles

Camped at mile 1155.8

I am realizing that we are slow in the morning. It is hard to get out of the sleeping bag, not because it is cold anymore but because it is so cozy. And laying down feels good for my tired limbs. But finally I peel myself off my sleeping pad and begin packing my stuff. I have been packing my clothes in ziplock bags since the sierras. An old habit from the AT where we would have rain every other day. We have had rain once on the PCT so far.

Packing my bag without a bear can is so much easier. My pack actually feels soft against my back again and is a bit smaller.

The main motivation of today was the Donner Ski Ranch which sells hot food and gives free drinks to hikers. It was 15 miles away from where we camped so we didn’t feel too much in a rush to get there. We enjoyed the ridge walk with great views today. The fields of wildflowers were lovely. I entertain myself by trying to name every flower we come across.

Part way through the afternoon, I looked up to see two hikers coming toward us. We had been seeing many day hikers so I didn’t think much of it. But then something seemed vaguely familiar about these hikers. Soon I heard them calling out “hello Cheery-o and Rhino”!!!!!! It was our friends from the AT that we had hiked with who are doing a south bound hike of the PCT this year! They had to start in Ashland, OR and go south because of the snow in northern Washington. So they just made it to us here! We were so excited to see them. We shared our various details and tips about the trail we had walked and vice versa and talked about life since the last trail. It brought back such memories to see them again and it was wild to see the same friends on two different thruhikes! I’m so grateful for these encounters and so fortunate to meet such amazing people!

We also went over Donner pass today. The infamous route into California during the gold rush era. Made famous by the Donner party who got stuck in a snow storm and allegedly resorted to cannibalism to survive. The podcast “stuff you should know” has a podcast in it that I listened to long ago. Very interesting.

Zero day

Day 70

Zero day!!! No trail miles

It has been 27 days since our last zero so we hoped to savor this one! We slept in, drank lots of coffee and then Stu dropped us off in South Lake Tahoe. We had a few more errands to run before taking the bus to our hotel and meeting up with our friends. While walking around town, we ran into a friend, Sweetcakes, that Cheery-O and I had hiked with back in the desert. We were waiting to cross a street and saw him across the way. It was fun to reconnect after so many miles!

One goal I had for this zero day was to go swimming in Lake Tahoe! I love this lake and area. It is usually busy with people in the summer but it makes sense why everyone wants to be there! The lake is a deep blue color and surrounded by big mountains. We found a beach and went swimming before heading to the hotel to rest our feet and finish washing out and sewing up our gear. I sewed Kevin’s shirt again, he is sentimental about this shirt and it looks like a trash heap! (I say that in the most loving way possible 😂).

Kevin fixed our water bags, they both had sprung a leak and we need them before the warranty could get us new bags so we will see if our fix will hold on the trail.

At dinner we met up with the other three members of our group who had gotten off trail to visit family members. They caught up to us here in town so we all shared stories of our times apart and what we experienced.

Day 67

21.7 miles

We woke up in a better mood today. The terrain we walked through today was absolutely beautiful! We saw giant rock outcroppings of some sedimentary or possible sand stone type rocks. It was neat to watch how the rocks changed shape and view as the trail circled around the bases and through the canyons. Parts of today were through some shady forests which felt much cooler than the exposed hill slopes. But the hill slopes were covered in flowers. There were Woolly Common Sunflower, Nettle leaf fist hyssop, and wavy checker bloom. I love the mix of colors in the flower patches but a camera just can’t seem to pick up all the beauty!

Early in our hike we randomly got some cell service. Kevin discovered that Desolation wilderness which we will walk through in two days has a new bear can requirement. This is super great since it is a high use area with day hikers and weekenders and people aren’t always reliable to store food properly. However, since we are two days out, we couldn’t plan to keep our rented bear cans that we returned two days ago. We have our Ur sacks which are certified by the same grizzly bear foundation as bear cans but not accepted for some reason. So when we had service again this afternoon we took a break with our tramily to figure out our plans and get a hotel reservation in South Lake Tahoe. We finally did get everything worked out and continued on to camp. We camped at a cute pond with a breeze so the mosquitos aren’t too bad.

We managed to get the tent door shut that was stuck open all last night. So we will just use one door now and have to be gracious with each other even more in a small tent with one side door! When we get to town we will have to order a new tent.